Super Bowl Sunday one of deadliest drunk driving days of the year

| Friday, March 01, 2002

If you're trucking on Sunday, the bad news is that you'll miss the St. Louis Rams take on the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. The other bad news is, you'll have to contend with an abnormal number of drunk drivers on the road that day.

The National Commission Against Drunk Driving today warned that alcohol-related traffic deaths typically rise sharply on Super Bowl Sunday, and urged American motorists to take extra precautions to ensure that the day is safe and sober.

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the single most deadly days on America's roads, matched only by New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day. On the average day, 44 people die in alcohol-related traffic crashes, constituting 40 percent of highway deaths that day. However, over the past six Super Bowl Sundays, an average of 59 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes, accounting for 54 percent of highway deaths that day. In 2000, 62 people were killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes on Super Bowl day, accounting for more than 59 percent of all road deaths that day.